What Makes ZZ&L Different from Other Firms?

Posted on Thursday, July 5th, 2018 at 4:58 pm

I think what differentiates our firm from the other law firms in Philadelphia who handle accident cases and injury cases is that we’re a family firm. We were started by Howard Zavodnick and his wife, Sandra Zavodnick. My wife, Jamie Zavodnick-Lasky, used to work here. My brother-in-law is now my partner, Ryan Zavodnick. I say that because we work together, we obviously spend a great deal of time out of work together discussing cases (which our spouses don’t always appreciate when we’re not at work), but we are very much a team and we’re a family. That’s not just an expression, that’s the reality.

That’s who we are and what we are, and we try to carry that over in how we deal with our clients and try to treat our clients like they are part of the family. We take great pride in getting to know our clients, getting to know the names of their spouses, the names of their children, knowing what football teams they like, what other sports teams they like, what they like to do for fun. We really try to make sure we’re developing relationships with our clients, and it’s not just a case to us where we’re just focused solely on the facts of the case and the outcome.

We take a hands-on approach, we are individually handling the cases; which isn’t to say that every now and then we don’t have to pinch it and cover something for one another. But when we do that, we are thoroughly prepared and we discussed the matter at great length, but by-and-large, if you hire me, or Ryan, or Howard to handle your case, that’s who’s going to handle your case. We don’t form the cases out, we don’t have associates who you’ll never meet. We’ll be looking for you in court and calling out your name, having never met you before. If you hire us, we are what you get.

We take a holistic approach to the case as well, which is something that differentiates us. So it’s easy enough for a good attorney, and I think we are good attorneys, to obtain a settlement of any case: whether it be a work injury case, or whether it be a motor vehicle accident case or any other personal injury case. What we try to do is, before we get the settlement, we bring the clients in and say, “what are you going to do now? What are you going to do if we sell your workers’ compensation claim? What’s your plan? Are you going to be able to go back to work? Are you going to get a lot of money, but then blow through it because you haven’t set out a plan? You’re not going to be able to go to work in the future, you’re not going to be able to retrain to enter a different occupation.” So we try to make sure that we’re not just putting money in our client’s pockets, that we’re advising them, we’re counseling them.

We’re not just litigators; we advise, we consult, we give our recommendations. Ultimately, the decisions are always our client’s, but we try to really make sure we’re looking at the bigger picture and not just the value of the case in a vacuum.